Florida's Great Python Hunt Is an Abysmal Failure

You know how, sometimes, you put together plans for a great big party and you invite everyone you know and you set out food and drinks and chairs and music and then, well, only a few people show up? That's sort of what Florida is experiencing right now, except instead of a "party," it's a "hunt," and instead of "food and drinks," it's "pythons," and instead of "few people show up," it's "only a few pythons dead." When Florida first announced the Great Python Hunt of 2013, it was expected to curb the tide of the state's great python invasion, because having too many terrifying giant snakes in your state is a very real problem. But the very real solution—sending Floridians out as bounty hunters—has only resulted in 50 dead pythons with a week to go on the open season. (Word is, the state was hoping for thousands.) And, well, what can you expect? Florida people may not be known for being normal, but they're not "go-python-hunting" crazy. Not all of them, at least ...